...and they always remembered my birthday.

     For probably the first 14 years of my life, I was forever receiving birthday cards from my Uncle Hillas and Aunt Eloise Brockett, whom I had never met. They were my Mom's favorite aunt & uncle, yet, even though they didn't die until 1993-1994, I never had the opportunity to meet them. For awhile, every summer, they'd ship us a box of grapefruit & oranges from the trees in their back yard (they lived in Clearwater, Florida), which I thought was awesome.
     Hillas B. Brockett, was born December 22, 1900 in Hardin County, Illinois. The Brockett family had left their ancestral home in White County, Illinois not to much earlier to seek their living elsewhere and would eventually end up in the Brushy Lake and Cherry Valley areas of Cross County, Arkansas. Hillas joined the Army and became the only member of the family to leave home and do something other than farming. He served in a few posts around the country (from his age, he must've joined either during or just after the First World War) and also spent time as a hospital administrator in post-WWII Japan during the reconstruction. He ultimately retired as a colonel and settled in Florida.
     I don't know much about Eloise, yet. My Aunt Elsie remembers her maiden name as Moss, but her grave marker shows Eloise Gates Brockett, so I'm not sure of that's a middle name or maiden name. I'm not sure where they were married, so I don't know where to look for a marriage record. I assume she was a Cross County native, but I haven't done much research on her, so I'm not sure. Having no children of their own, they valued their nieces and nephews.
     Since I never got to meet them, I made a point to visit their grave. After finding their obituaries in the Tampa Tribune's archives thru NewsBank's America's Obituaries, I learned that they were buried in the beautiful Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Pinellas Park, FL. They are now listed in Find A Grave and I'll be adding their portraits in the near future.